Frasier Sterling began as a small gem in Frasier Lipton’s apartment, a mere side hustle Lipton gradually scaled, using materials of increasing quality and quantity, as her customer base grew beyond her expectations. In remarkable timing, she found herself “working until 2 am for years to keep up” with the demand for her products; according to Forbes, Frasier Sterling has “grown over 100% YoY [year on year; annually] since inception.” She realized she needed to scale up her production methods—and her confidence in the business’ success—when the flow of business “hit an inflection point” around 2015 “and wasn’t manageable anymore.”
Two years later, when Frasier Sterling had long lined the shelves of major retail distributors, Lipton noticed that retailers took advantages of such dependent businesses and recognized a landslide that could occur to her own business when other brands such as Nasty Gal filed bankruptcy. She responded by shifting Sterling into a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, distributing products directly to customers online.
Lipton has been driven by the vision of creating jewelry akin to the candy-bracelet and dainty charm-necklace wonderland central to most young women’s childhoods, expressing that she loves to “make pieces Bella and Gigi Hadid, Sofia Richie and Madison Beer wear but everyone else can also afford. I try to keep Frasier Sterling light, fun and feel good — I always say if it can be described with an emoji, I know it’ll be a hit!” Lipton has kept this centrality in the Web, investing in online advertising as opposed to in-person campaigns and functions, a strategy which aligns to Lipton’s target market of the current ‘net-engrossed generation.
Regarding her view of the success of Frasier Sterlig, Lipton harkens back to the brand’s prioritization of customer feedback in every step of the business’s trajectory, stating of her customers that “they’re so interactive, vocal and always telling us what they like and don’t like. We know our customers so well and really lean on them when it comes to product design, collaborations, the type of content we are putting out and even the deals we run — and I think this a big factor in why our retention rate is so high compared to industry standard.”
As a recent facet of this trajectory, Lipton has striven to tune in to the voices of young women beyond her customer base, partnering with nonprofit Girls Inc. to offer mentorship to young women in impoverished conditions, driving positive growth in people’s lives at a young age and ensuring that bright and innovative women like Frasier Lipton have the opportunities to act on their motivations and fulfill their dreams as well.